Prologue: The Shattering
The world ended on a cold, silent morning.
It began with the sky splitting apart—a jagged wound in reality that bled colors humanity had no names for. From the wound came the Tower of Eternity, impossibly vast and ancient, its shadow stretching across continents. The ground trembled as rifts tore through the Earth, cracks spreading like veins of disease.
Seoul, once a city of light and life, became a graveyard overnight. The first rift opened in the heart of the Han River, swallowing everything in its path. Monstrous creatures spilled forth, their howls drowning out the cries of the dying. People fled, but the rifts followed. By dawn, Seoul was no longer part of the world—it was part of the Tower's dominion.
For years, the Tower grew, and humanity fell.
The survivors were left to adapt or perish. Governments collapsed, replaced by warlords and corporations who saw opportunity in chaos. The rifts, though deadly, birthed treasures of immense value—Ethereal Crystals, Voidsteel, and other resources that defied the laws of physics. These materials were worth more than gold to the new rulers of Earth.
And so, a new class was born: the Rift Servants.
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Chapter 1: Shards of a Broken Boy
The boy knelt in the dirt, his hands raw and trembling as he sifted through the rubble. The rift pulsed behind him, a jagged tear in reality that howled with unnatural winds. He could feel the air burn against his skin, the oppressive weight of the rift pressing on his lungs.
"Faster!" barked a voice from behind.
Kael flinched but didn't turn around. He knew better. The overseers didn't care if you were hungry, tired, or hurt. They didn't care if the monsters came. They only cared about results.
"Please," whispered the boy beside him, his voice barely audible over the howling winds. "My leg… I can't…"
Kael glanced sideways at the boy—a scrawny kid no older than ten, his face pale from blood loss. His leg had been shredded by a Rift Beast's claws earlier, and he hadn't stopped bleeding since.
"Keep digging," Kael said, his voice flat.
"But—"
"Keep digging."
The boy's lip quivered, but he obeyed.
Kael didn't look at him again. He focused on the shards of Ethereal Crystal buried in the dirt, their faint glow barely visible through the grime. The overseers would beat them if they came back empty-handed. Worse, they might send them deeper into the rift—a death sentence for anyone too weak to fight.
The rift pulsed again, and Kael's stomach twisted. He hated this place. He hated the rifts, the overseers, the creatures that lurked in the shadows. But more than anything, he hated the Tower—that monolithic abomination that had turned the world into this nightmare.
"Kael!"
The shout snapped him out of his thoughts. He turned just in time to see one of the overseers running toward them, his face pale.
"Beast! Incoming!"
Kael's heart sank.
The ground trembled as something massive emerged from the rift. Its form was indistinct, a swirling mass of shadow and teeth that seemed to shift and ripple with every step. The air grew colder, and Kael felt his muscles seize.
"Run!" someone screamed.
Chaos erupted. The overseers bolted, leaving the servants to fend for themselves. Kael didn't hesitate—he grabbed the boy by the arm and yanked him to his feet.
"Come on!"
The boy stumbled, his injured leg dragging behind him, but Kael didn't let go. He pulled him toward the edge of the rift field, where the fences marked the boundary of relative safety.
The beast roared, a sound that made Kael's ears ring. He glanced back and saw it charging, its many limbs crashing through the rubble like a living storm.
They weren't going to make it.
"Leave me," the boy gasped, tears streaming down his face. "You'll die if you don't—"
Kael didn't answer. He just kept running, his legs burning with effort.
The fence was just ahead. Almost there.
The beast lunged.
Kael threw himself forward, shoving the boy ahead of him as the creature's claws tore through the air. He felt a sharp pain in his back, and then he was on the ground, his body screaming in protest.
The boy scrambled to safety, but Kael couldn't move. He turned his head, his vision blurring, and saw the beast looming over him. Its many eyes gleamed with hunger.
This is it, he thought.
But then something shifted. The air grew colder still, and a strange silence fell over the rift field. The beast froze, its limbs trembling, as a shadow darker than the void itself seeped out of the ground.
Kael felt it before he saw it—a presence, ancient and unrelenting, pressing down on his soul. The shadow coiled around him like a serpent, and he realized with a jolt that it was coming from the rift core buried in the rubble beside him.
A voice echoed in his mind, cold and empty.
"Do you want to live?"
Kael's breath hitched. He didn't know if he was hallucinating or if the rift itself was speaking to him. But he didn't care.
"Yes," he whispered.
The shadow surged forward, enveloping him in darkness. The beast roared, its body twisting in agony as the shadow consumed it. Kael felt a surge of power unlike anything he had ever known—cold, unrelenting, and pure.
When the darkness receded, the beast was gone, and Kael stood alone in the rift field. The overseers and servants stared at him from a distance, their faces pale with fear.
Kael didn't look at them. He turned his gaze toward the distant silhouette of the Tower of Eternity, its spire piercing the heavens.
One day, he thought. One day, I'll destroy you.
And with that, he walked away, the shadow at his heels.